DANIEL GROSS

Dividend Dopes

Companies that are failing today were paying dividends a just few months ago. What gives?

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  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 11/01/2008 9:32:16 PM

    PALIN GOT PUNKED PART 1
    Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call Saturday from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and telling her she would make a good president someday.
    "Maybe in eight years," replies a laughing Palin.
    The Republican vice presidential nominee discusses politics, the perils of hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy's "beautiful wife," in a recording of the call released Saturday and set to air Monday on a Quebec radio station.
    Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt confirmed she had received the prank call.
    "Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie," she said.
    The call was made by a well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state.
    Audette, posing as Sarkozy, speaks in an exaggerated French accent and drops ample hints that the conversation is a joke. But Palin seemingly does not pick up on them.
    He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor.
    "I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," the fake Sarkozy says.
    He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he says he has never done.
    "Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done," Palin counters. "We can kill two birds with one stone that way."
    The comedian jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney along on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.
    "I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin.
    Playing off the governor's much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," the caller tells her: "You know we have a lot in common also, because ... from my house I can see Belgium."
    She replies: "Well, see, we're right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes."

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 11/01/2008 9:32:07 PM

    PALIN GOT PUNKED PART 2
    When Audette refers to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada's prime minister, Palin replies: "Well, he's doing fine and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder." Canada's prime minister is Stephen Harper.
    Palin praises Sarkozy throughout the call and also mentions his wife Carla Bruni, a model-turned-songwriter.
    "You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife," Palin says. "Oh my goodness, you've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours."
    The Sarkozy impersonator tells Palin his wife is "so hot in bed" and then informs her that Bruni has written a song for her about Joe the Plumber entitled "De rouge a levre sur un cochon" ??? which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig."
    Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama derided his Republican challenger John McCain's call for change in Washington as "lipstick on a pig," days after Palin made a lipstick joke at the Republican convention. The McCain-Palin campaign then released an ad implying Obama was calling Palin a pig with that remark.
    The caller asks Palin if Joe the Plumber is her husband and adds: "We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It's called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit."
    He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the "documentary" made about her and referred to a pornographic film with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt.
    She answers tentatively, "Ohh, good, thank you, yes."
    The callers then reveal the prank and identify themselves and their radio station.
    "Ohhh, have we been pranked?" Palin asks. "And what radio station

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 11/01/2008 2:22:24 PM

    Sarah palin when asked about becoming vp responded

    "As for that VP talk all the time, I tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me, 'what is it exactly that the VP does every day......"

    After she had been the nominee for around 2 months she was asked again and this time said

    [T]hey???re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

    If she doenst know what the vice pres or presidant does why would we give her the job

    mccain has around a 40 percent chance because of his age in not being able to

    complete his term

    picking palin was about as smart as picking any other mrs alaska contestant

    let send her back to the north

    elect obama biden now

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 11/01/2008 9:10:37 AM

    This comment was worth reposting its not mine but you should read it

    "Nowforthetruth" recently made this posting: "Nins, all you prove is that you have perpetual PMS and cannot read. If you are as careless in your practice, you are a danger to your profession."

    You reveal too much of yourself "Nowforthetruth".

    "Nowforthetruth" also continues to keep repasting postings that suggest that the root cause of our problem is a law decades old that encourages loans to qualified low income people. "Nowforthetruth" is part of the spin/propaganda machine, and continues to repeat well known deceit.

    Alan Greenspan stated recently that the problem was not anything like that. Rather, he stated that an entire financial system was built outside of regulation, and 'we trusted' these self-interested looters to regulate themselves. Credit Default Swaps were the result.

    Credit Default Swaps increased from $106 trillion in '02 to $531 trillion under the R stewardship. No regulation.

    While there are several variations of a viral email that tries to blame a few thousands of political donations to some Democrats, the actual, legitimate news has reported that Fannie and Freddie paid many millions to Republican lobbyists to lobby Republicans to PREVENT REGULATION.

    McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, received up to $35K/mo. from Fannie and Freddie from 2000 to present, to lobby Rs,only, against regulation. Freddie has paid Rick Davis while he has been McC's campaing manager. Freddie donated $250k to the R convention.

    These facts are everywhere in the legitimate news. You can start at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/politics/22mccain.html and http://www.newsweek.com/id/164732/page/1 There's much more legitimate news on this.

    Trillions were looted from our economy because the Rs allowed it. It is inescapable that the Rs, most prominently McC's campaign manager, were in the pockets of big money while they drove the buss off the cliff with us in it.

    You can try to distract people with fears about 'those guys'. Lies, distortion, deception. 'Socialist' is only the last in a long, now desperate, list of labels you have tried to pin on 'that one'. That's all you have left.

    Is your most recent reposting here directed to fears about "Socialism", or is it just innuendo, or are we trying to fold in a little racism too?

    I've got an idea, since we have no more ideas, let's keep running our campaign on fear, smears and hypocrisy.

    Keep talking "Nowforthetruth", you're really helping. You keep demonstrating that we all have to vote against lies and propaganda and attempts to hijack our political process with deceit. Your actions are the kinds of reasons that I'm voting for Obama after 40 years of never having voted for a Dem.

    A 40 year republican

    • Posted By: C. MacLean @ 11/01/2008 9:16:04 AM

      Just a little revisionist history there, nowforsometruth.

      Offering adjustable rate mortgages as the only way to obtain a mortgage was based on an erroneous assumption by the lenders, not the borrowers. The lenders counted on housing equity always increasing, so if the borrower couldn't make their payments, no big deal, the houses would still increase in value and the lender would recoup their losses.

      No businessman in his right mind would have made those loans if he thought he would lose money - they made those loans because they were convinced they would make money. There was no "forced" residential housing policy - lenders were more than happy to speculate, drive up the prices with questionable appraisals, and then hide what they were doing by inventing "new financial instruments."
      And borrowers did NOT place top credit ratings on those "new financial instruments" - credit rating agencies did.

      It is convenient nowadays to imply that minorities and people with lower credit ratings "caused" the mortgage crisis, just another example of blaming the victim. It is also convenient to tie the present economic problems to the Clinton administration's Community Reinvestment Act.

      But the truth is the American tax structure is set up to reward home ownership, and people like Clinton and Obama were trying to find a way for more Americans to gain access to those rewards.

      There were certainly ways to do so that didn't encourage speculators, housing inflation, and flat-out greed, but too many lenders chose profits over common sense.

      Greed and lack of common sense is what destroyed the housing market, not the democrats and Obama.

  • Posted By: rajeshbala @ 11/01/2008 9:02:43 AM

    Have the concepts of Earnings per Share and Price Earning ratios been mixed up?

  • Posted By: balarajesh @ 11/01/2008 8:59:42 AM

    Have the concepts of Earnings per Share and Price Earning ratios been mixed up?

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 11/01/2008 8:28:49 AM

    FUN QUOTES FROM PALIN
    I got all of these quotes off of google quotes
    You really couldn't make up this kind of stuff up if you wanted to
    This all part of the reason why so many important republicans have been saying she
    is a joke

    When asked about her foreign policy experience she said
    "As Putin rears his head," she said, referring to Russian prime Minister Vladimir Putin, "and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border."
    TELLING THE TRUTH FOR A CHANGE SHE HAD THIS TO SAY ABOUT HER RUN FOR VP
    "It's time that normal Joe Six-Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice-presidency"
    WHEN ASKED TO NAME ONE SUPREME COURT DECISION AND NOT BEING ABLE TO SHE CAME UP WITH THIS ANSWER
    "I'm in that sense a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas"
    when asked again to name one decision she responded
    "Well, let's see. There's -- of course -- in the great history of America rulings there have been rulings"
    When asked about being a redneck she said
    "Someone called me a `redneck woman' once. You know what I said back? `Thank-you very much.'"
    when asked what promises she might not be able to keep
    "How long have I been at this, like five weeks? So there hasn't been a whole lot that I've promised, except to do what is right..."

    Talking to dobson about prayer she said
    "It is that intercession that is so needed and so greatly appreciated," Palin told Dobson. "And I can feel it too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer, and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation."

    When asked about being a environmentalist she originally said
    "I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity."
    when asked again later if she thought people had a impact on global warming
    "Show me where I have ever said that there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change,"
    asked about voting she said
    "I truly believe that the wisdom of the people will be rebuilt on [Election Day]. As they enter that voting booth, they will understand the stark contrast between the two tickets,"
    when asked how mccain did at his first debate
    "I just thought he was great, because the American people are angry, and John McCain is angry, too
    when asked about tina feys imitation of her she said
    "I watched it with the volume all the way down," Palin said. "I thought it was hilarious."

    IS SHE KIDDING IS THIS WHOLE THING A JOKE
    IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE SOMEONE COULD BE THIS CLUELESS
    SOMEONE THAT THINKS THEY COULD RUN THE COUTRY NOW LESS
    VOTE OBAMA BIDEN NOW AND SEND HER BACK TO ALASKA

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/31/2008 5:13:32 PM

    Acorn is just another invented issue.
    All the group does is register new voters . They pay people 8 bucks a hour a help people
    fill out registration forms and then turn them in. By law they are required to turn in ballots people fill out that dont seem credible. But they seperate them from the normal ballots and inform election officials when they turn them in. As a example If somone fills out a ballot that says donald duck they still have to turn that ballot in , but since there really is no donald duck and no one to show up and vote with a id that matches that registration on election day . It will have zero effect on anything and all this is is a waste time
    Also all ballots acorn marks as fishy are also investigated and checked against state records to make sure they are real people if not they are thrown out.
    Its has no effect because no one can vote without proper ID
    So unless the gop thinks there are imaginary people to go along with with throw away ballots then
    lets move on to something that matters like the fact we are going in to the next great depression,
    and that mccain says he doesnt understand the economy
    How about we talk about the war, the national debt <11 trillion>, The housing market, the job market,health care,global warming.
    Are things so great we need to invent issues like acorn ?
    or is it the gop has no answers to the mess they have created in the last 8 years?
    Let talk about things that will improve our lifes and not something no one cares about.
    And lets throw out the poeple that created this mess
    they dont deserve a chance to make things worse

    Please vote early election day will be a mess

    • Posted By: Vypurr @ 10/31/2008 6:26:54 PM

      Another invented issue? Right. I suppose the authorities dreamed up Tony Romo and half of the Dallas Cowboys voting early in... Nevada! And they of course dreamed up a ten year record of voting fraud involving twenty states, always caught stuffing the ballot box with democrat votes. Then there's the little problem of Obama giving a front company for Acorn over 800 thousand dollars.... (the same board of directors sit on both boards.) That way he wouldn't be directly giving money to an entity that had been caught with their pants down for years illegally helping the democrats...

      Yeah... it was all dreamed up by the authorities.

      • Posted By: averagejoe300 @ 11/01/2008 4:54:11 AM

        Please...spar me the panic talk. How about Republicans denying people their right to vote in a little town called Harris, TX. The registration is turned downed because "information is missing" yet when the forms are reviewed, the information is clearly written and supposedly missing information is right there on the forms. Also, by law people who are turned down for whatever reason are supposed to be notified in 7 days, yet they were not notified until 3 days before the deadline...

      • Posted By: averagejoe300 @ 11/01/2008 4:51:34 AM

        Please...spar me the panic talk. How about Republicans denying people their right to vote in a little town called Harris, TX. The registration is turned downed because "information is missing" yet when the forms are reviewed, the information is clearly written and supposedly missing information is right there on the forms. Also, by law people who are turned down for whatever reason are supposed to be notified in 7 days, yet they were not notified until 3 days before the deadline...

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 10/31/2008 2:45:03 PM

    It appears that when you buy stocks there is just too much distance between you and those who are handling your money. The annual reports no longer help, while the hands holding your cash are doing the old "one for you, two for me" trick we used to pull on younger children when dividing cookies and such. It all shows when the economy takes surprise dips, just as when the pyramid schemes crash when the suckers quit buying in. A great number of the culprits behind this need to be fitted for striped suits and taught how to bust rocks with a sledge hammer.

    • Posted By: Nowforsomemoretruth @ 10/31/2008 3:40:55 PM

      You can start with the Congressional Democrats, including Obama, who destroyed the housing market.
      What do you really know about Obama's economic philosophy? Since he has never run a town, state or business, he has no record to look at. Oh, he has made lots of promises, but given that he broke his promise to be limited to public campaign funds, you cant put much faith in that, and there will be no means to keep those promises anyway.

      But you do know that Obama, along with his democratic buddies in Congress, personally and professionally advocated for a residential housing policy favoring forced sub-prime lending, which subsequently resulted in massive defaults and foreclosures, leading to your loss of significant equity value in your home, to the point that it destabilized your banks, which panicked the stock market, which wiped out your savings.

      Look and listen to Obama for yourself. Obama in this video, addressing his community activist work and his work representing ACORN in litigation against the banks and relating to the Community Reinvestment Act, and addressing the failure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as those actions relate to the destruction of our economy by causing the current real estate and subsequent financial crisis, states that, and I quote:

      "Subprime lending started out as a good idea, helping Americans buy homes who previously could not afford to. Financial institutions created new financial instruments that could securitize these loans, slice them into finer and finer risk categories, and spread them out among investors and around the country, as well as around the world. In theory, this should have allowed mortgage lending to be less risky, and more diversified."

      Acknowledging the catastrophe, but as apologist for the Democrats, Obama then offers this justification.

      "The original idea was a good one, which was, lets see if we can distribute risk more broadly, and make it easier to provide loans to people who otherwise might not be able to get one."

      Yah, great idea. Economically unsound, but embraced by Obama. Listen for yourself. You cannot dispute the mans on words recorded live:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314&feature=related

      Below is a link to C-SPAN video clips of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCains attempt at S.190. to fix Fannie and Freddie. See for yourself who said what.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

      • Posted By: C. MacLean @ 10/31/2008 5:30:51 PM

        "You can start with congressional democrats, including Obama, who destroyed the housing market...residential housing policy favoring forced sub-prime lending, which subsequently resulted in massive defaults and foreclosures, leading to your loss of significant equity value in your home, to the point that it destabilized your banks, which panicked the stock market, which wiped out your savings..."

        Just a little revisionist history there, nowforsometruth.

        Offering adjustable rate mortgages as the only way to obtain a mortgage was based on an erroneous assumption by the lenders, not the borrowers. The lenders counted on housing equity always increasing, so if the borrower couldn't make their payments, no big deal, the houses would still increase in value and the lender would recoup their losses.

        No businessman in his right mind would have made those loans if he thought he would lose money - they made those loans because they were convinced they would make money. There was no "forced" residential housing policy - lenders were more than happy to speculate, drive up the prices with questionable appraisals, and then hide what they were doing by inventing "new financial instruments."
        And borrowers did NOT place top credit ratings on those "new financial instruments" - credit rating agencies did.

        It is convenient nowadays to imply that minorities and people with lower credit ratings "caused" the mortgage crisis, just another example of blaming the victim. It is also convenient to tie the present economic problems to the Clinton administration's Community Reinvestment Act.

        But the truth is the American tax structure is set up to reward home ownership, and people like Clinton and Obama were trying to find a way for more Americans to gain access to those rewards.

        There were certainly ways to do so that didn't encourage speculators, housing inflation, and flat-out greed, but too many lenders chose profits over common sense.

        Greed and lack of common sense is what destroyed the housing market, not the democrats and Obama.

      • Posted By: ThePrairiePrankster @ 10/31/2008 4:12:31 PM

        McCain has never run or managed a business, a city, a state or even his own home. He has no sense of what it would take to run an organization as his chaotic and incoherent campaign amply demonstrates. He married into money, never earned it, and has difficulty remembering how many houses he owns. McCain's military record shows no qualities of Presidential leadership. McCain is a brave man who served with honor in the military, but that in and of itself is NOT a qualification to be president. McCain repeats lies as truth and then during interviews acknowledges the lie and then repeats the lie in his stump speeches. McCain showed extremely poor judgment in his VP pick. John McCain supports the Earned Income Tax Credit and the $700+ billion bailout of the richest Americans so his cries of Socialism are utter nonsense. And finally, at age 72, McCain is too old for the job and his hand picked successor is a total disaster.

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/31/2008 5:13:22 PM

    THE GREAT BUSH DEPRESSION
    I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
    He perfectly predicted the current meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen next
    is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
    The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
    The government took them over because they are bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
    the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything seen in generations
    McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
    That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand how its been broken.
    It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use quantum mathematical models very few people understand.
    Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
    Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
    Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
    No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He was the last to know somthing was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
    It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
    even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a budget surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
    If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
    When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
    So why are the polls even close then ?
    Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
    which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
    They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
    Let's teach him we are smarter than that
    Stand up and hold them accountable
    Bush isn't on the ballot this year but his policies are
    Elect Obama Biden 2008






    Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/31/2008 5:13:11 PM

    THE GREAT BUSH DEPRESSION
    I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
    He perfectly predicted the current meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen next
    is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
    The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
    The government took them over because they are bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
    the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything seen in generations
    McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
    That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand how its been broken.
    It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use quantum mathematical models very few people understand.
    Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
    Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
    Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
    No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He was the last to know somthing was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
    It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
    even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a budget surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
    If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
    When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
    So why are the polls even close then ?
    Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
    which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
    They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
    Let's teach him we are smarter than that
    Stand up and hold them accountable
    Bush isn't on the ballot this year but his policies are
    Elect Obama Biden 2008






    Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

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